Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	king_n	sir_n	time_n	2,225	5	3.5097	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88998	The picklock of the old Fenne project: or, Heads of Sir John Maynard his severall speeches, taken in short-hand, at the committee for Lincolneshire Fens, in the exchequer chamber. Consisting of matter of fact. Matter of law. Presidents quæres and answers.	Maynard, John, Sir, 1602-1690.	1650 (1650)	Wing M1457; Thomason E594_4; ESTC R206914	10,306	19

they laid it likewise upon no body for generals signifies nothing but as I said formerly it must be done by the Jury upon individuals All the Kings Letters which are supposed to be indited by Master Role ● Long were diametrially contrary to Law The King could lay no Tax nor give the Commissioners leave to proceed without Juries nor to appoint Undertakers which is contrary to the 43. of Eliz and the 4. and 7. of King Iames In the 43. of Elizabeth there is the first mention of an Undertaker and therein he is limited and directed what how ●●d with whom he must contract A Commissioner likewise hath no authority to contract but the Contract must be by the direction and approbation of the Lords Owners and Commoners under their hands and seals in writing indented Here was no such matter they followed their own lights which were Ignes fatui and so fell into those pits they digged for others They made a Contract with the King which was an evil bargain and they had the Kings Royall Assent which signifies nothing out of Parliament who ought by Law to speak onely by his Writs For Det Lex Regi quod Rex Legi quae Rex jure potest Rex ea sola potest but my fellow Courtiers thought they were above and beyond the Arm of the Law though they were both reached and over-reached at the last The Judges for Ship money were accused for Treason by reason it was destructive to Propriety yet that was not three in the pound but the Fenne-Project cuts our estates asunder at a blow In Ship-Money the King had a Judgement by the sworn or rather forsworn Judges but the Undertakers were the old Levelling Courtiers destroyers of Propriety and got the Kings hand to Letters of their own inditing and just as the Earl of Strafford produced blanks for all his horrid illegall Acts as disarming the Protestants and arming the Papists so did the Undertakers produce the Kings Letters upon all occasions especially to destroy Jucies and to take away our reall estates without consulting the Owners It is the same with the Forrest business for the Judges some of them would have made all England a Forrest So this generation of Undertakers would have incorporated and got a standing Commission in all Counties and so made England the Levell and England to be surrounded and in short time would have taken all we had This was as bad as their Levying War against the Parliament And we conceive Sir William Killagrew did actually Levy War against the Nation and had his project succeeded we had been no more a People Alas the Law of the Land was used by the Undertakers as a Murderer in Frame whose joynts are broken on the Wheel whilest he is yet alive and in good health I should Answer the Counsellors prolix Argument but I know not how to finde the beginning nor end of his ravelled discourse He hath played the part of a flourishing Writer who usually buries the Capitall Letter in a curious knot and instead of enucleating the business I can see no kernell but husks and shels In my apprehension the Gentleman that spake last hath gleaned his Argument from my Lord Finch and some of the Ship-Money Judges All he hath spoken is for the Kings Prerogative against the Law that is not now Ala mode But Master Goodwin I beseech you observe this Honourable Committee hath spent one quarter of a year on the point of possession and I hope we have beaten the Undertakers from that Post Then they pressed to state their case in Law and shew their title so that we hope now we have gained that Post likewise and not only got possession which is eleven points in Law but the twelfth likewise Now the Undertakers are building Castles in the Ayre or rather upon a Quicksandy foundation of the old Arbitrary Government of conveniency and inconveniency if that poynt crack then they will flie to necessity the old Court Retreat Let them traverse their ground and sence as well as they can we shall hit them still and beat them at their own weapon The Presidents IN Queen Elizabeths days this project was set on foot by the then Earl of Lincoln who procured a Patent from the Queen to drain some of these Fens when he was making his Works and new Drains contrary to Law the Country rose and the Lord Willoughby of Erby then Governour of Berwick raised the Trained Bands and assisted the Countrey in beating the workmen off the Earl of Lincoln complained to the Queen of the Riot committed by the Lord Willoughby who was sent for to the Councell Table The Lord Willoughby proved the Earl of Lincoln had not the Countreys consent but some few Tenants and others of his own faction that it was for private ends and lucre not onely to drayne himself and drown his Neighbours but to take great propoitions of Land which were never drowned for melioration and the means my Lord of Lincoln used was bribes to Courtiers to procure such an illegall Commission that himself and his friends might be Judges and Parties and that it was against the 23. of H. 8. The Queen upon full hearing of the business in great passion resumed her Commission and was wroth with the Earl of Lincoln who had been committed to prison but that his Lordship made great friends at Court and the Queen thanked the Lord Willoughby of Erby for assisting her good people in so honest and just a cause In the first of King James the same project was set on foot and a Petition was delivered unto his Majestie as though it had proceeded from the Country just such a Petition as Sir William Killagrew procured by two Ale-house keepers For it was onely a few of the Undertakers faction like to the Agreement of the People Sir Miles Sandes had made many friends at Court and the King was prepossessed it was a glorious work and for the Publique good and the King was made believe the Isle of Ely and the Southside the River Grant was hurtfully surrounded but when the King was hunting the Lord Garret of Chippenbam Sir John Cotton of Chenely Sir John Paytan of Iselham and Sir Thomas Gee acquainted the King with all the cheats of the Undertakers that they being Judges and Parties had made many thousand Acres that were never drowned and the most part of the Land which was the better by overflowing in the nature of River Meadows to be Land hurtfully surrounded That they dreyned and meliorated a little hurtfully surrounded Lands of their own and pejorated ten times as much Lands which were never hurtfully drowned before and that which was most gross and palpable they must not onely have a third part of that Land so pejorated but a third of such Lands as were never drowned for melioration When the King was fully instructed he injoyned secrecy and went up to the Parliament and discovered all the Undertakers fallacies and concluded wittily It is just

the same case my Lords at though a pack of thieves should give me 20000 l to give them a Pat●● under my Broad Seal to rob my Loyall Subjects of 200000 l. by the which I should perjure my self and become a Theif and Tyrant Thereupon the Parliament ●ung it out for a base cheating Monopoly some of Sir Miles Sands friends moved he might have satisfaction for the vast sums he had expended Sir Edward Cook answered Let those pay him that set him a work and further added that it was fit Sir Miles should give compensation to the oppressed Country for trying experiments against the Owners consents The Maxime is Plura potest interrogare Asmus quam respondere Aristotele But let the Undertakers ask as many and what questions they please we hope to give full satisfaction to this Honourable Committee but I wil state the most difficult Quaeres I ever heard of from the Undertakers and give them satisfactory Answers The Quaeries 1. Quaere Why did not the Countrey pay the Tax of a Mark the Acre Answ. Because it was illegall in many respects First the Commissioners were illegall that laid it on the Countrey for the Nobility and Gentry were put out of Commission and there was a new Commission where the Earl of Lindsey Sir Robert Killagrew Sir William Killagrew Master Robert Long and divers Privie Counsellors who were bribed and Courtiers were put in their rooms contrary to usance prescription and custom which is the Law of the Land and many of them had not a foot of Land in the Country whereas by Law they ought to have fourty Marks per Annum Had the Commissioners been legall they could not lay a Tax without a Jury and had the Commissions and Juries been legall they could neither lay a Tax to make new works which is cleared by the 15. and 16. Chap. of the Great Charter Likewise neither the Kings Commissioners nor Jurors have any thing to do with the matter of Undertaking that belongs onely to the major part of Lords Owners and Commoners For they may Contract under hand and Seal with whom they please so that Commissioners cannot be Undertakers for then they should be Judges and Parties Likewise it is against sence and reason that Commissioners and Undertakers as they were should Contract with themselves and give the Countreys Lands one to another as my Lord of Lindsey gave a Warrant to the Commissioners to Judge 14000. Acres dreyned his Lordship being the chief Undertaker himself Besides the Tax was laid on no body because it was laid on the Levell in generall whereas by Law it ought to be laid on particular Towns and Individuals so it could not be paid legally by any body 2. Quaere Whether is not dreyning good for the Common wealth Answ. There are two kindes of dreyning the one is by the Ancient Commissions of Sewers The other by the more recent way of Undertaking both these are legall and illegall Legall dreyning viz. by Commissioners of Sewers of the Nobility and wel-affected Gentry of their own Country and honest goodmen of the Neighbourhood who are to be Jurors and consequently Judges of the matter of Fact who return Defaultors according to the 12. of Edw. the 4. and thereupon the Commissioners confirm their Amerciaments were the old dreyns thus legally scowred twice or thrice the year there would little Land lye hurtfully surrounded this is good for the Common-wealth But illegall dreyning that is to put in Courtiers sharers sharks and strangers to be Commissioners and by the Kings Prerogative to make them Judges and Parties and to impower them to take away the Free Peoples Estates against their consents by view onely without Juries and to make new Works for private ends contrary to the great Charter which is confirmed by 32 Sessions of Parliament This is destructive to Propriety and the bane of the Common-wealth Undertaking is a distinct thing from the Commissions of Sewers neither has the Kings Commissioners of Sewers nor Jurors any thing to do with the matter or manner of undertaking This is likewise two fold legall or illegall Legall undertaking according to 43 Eliz. is when the major part of the Lords Owners and Commoners do agree with any person or persons or Corporations for a certain sum of money under their hands and Seales for the draining such Lands as they finde hurtfully surrounded This is good for the Common-wealth because it is with their free consents so Volenti non sit injuria Illegall undertaking is when the Kings Commissioners of Sewers or others by vertue of the Kings Authority by violence oppression or Councell-Table-Warrants will Act as Undertakers against the Owners consents this is the heighth of Arbitrary Government and Tiranny it self which is a speedy destruction to a Nation and the Pest of the Common-wealth 3 Quaere Whether drayning Land hurtfully surrounded is good for the Common-wealth Answ. If the Drayners be legall and do more good then hurt it may be good for the Common-wealth but if they do more hurt then good it must of necessity be bad for the Common-wealth The Undertaker is like the Tinker he stops one hole and makes two he draynes one Acre for himself and drownes two of his neighbours nay sometimes twenty certainly this is bad for the Common-wealth Yet he hath drained Lands hurtfully surrounded and drowned Lands not hurtfully surrounded and must have a third part of those Lands that were never hurtfully drowned for Melioration so the same former distinction still holds good Legall is good illegall is bad for the Common-wealth 4 Quaere Whether is this Levell of the Earle of Lindsey hurtfully surrounded Answ. There are two Verdicts and fourty Witnesses that have proved it is not hurtfully surrounded But if draining Lands hurtfully surrounded were good then draining Lands not hurtfully surrounded certainly is bad for the Commonwealth For to draine dry Land it is to take away the Humidum Radicale and so consequently to spoile it Besides to drain the Lands floods from our fodder-Fens and to divert the Rivers from overflowing we should not have half so much Fodder for our Cattell in winter This Levell is of this condition in both respects and the Earles new Draines do much more hurt then good by draining dry grounds which the Undertakers keep for themselves and leaves the worst to the Country and so contrives their new Draines that they hurtfully surround those Lands which were not hurtfully surrounded before so they drown us to drain us but the remedy is worse then the disease There are severall Witnesses that have proved this and we can demonstrate it mathematically That by opening the old Draines it would be far more beneficiall to the Commonwealth and it would not stand the Country in the tenth part of the charge All which can and will be done by a legall Commission of Sewers of the well-affected Gentry of the Countrey and honest Jurors of the Neighbourhood 5. Quaere Why hath not the Countrey drained themselves all this

while will they be like the Dog in the Manger neither do their selves good nor suffer others to help them Ans. The Country are and have been ever willing but they have been obstructed these sixty yeares by powerfull Courtiers as Lord Keepers Attorneys-Generall and the dissolution and Intervals of Parliaments have impeded us but when we are rid of the Undertakers the worke will quickly be done both for the Honour and profit of the Nation without fraud or coven 6 Quaere But had not the Earle of Lindsey the Major part of the Lords Owners and Commoners consents his Lordship had a Petition signed with many hands Answ. Ten for one of the Lords Owners and Commoners are against the Earls undertaking Those hands for the Earle were procured by two Alehouse-keepers and most of them were Cottagers no Lords and but very few Owners and Commoners 7 Quaere Would it not be a brave improvement to have Rape and Cole-seed Hemp Flax and likewise Corne Answ. They calculate and reckon without their Host that the Customes will amount to 10000 l. 1 s. 8 d. ob per annum This is Ala Mountebanco or Sharlaton like Our Fens as they are produce great store of Wooll and Lambe and large fat Mutton besides infinite quantities of Butter and Cheese and do breed great store of Cattell and are stockt with Horses Mares and Colts and we send fat Beefe to the Markets which affords Hides and Tallow and for Corne the Fodder we mow off the Fens in summer feeds our Cattell in the winter By which meanes wee gather such quantities of Dung that it inriches our upland and Corne-ground which are contiguous halfe in halfe Besides our Fennes relieves our neighbours the Uplanders in a dry summer and many adjacent Counties So thousands of Cattell besides our owne are preserved which otherwise would perish So take away a third of our Fens you extinguish our Rents in our Commoning Houses and our Pastures and Corne-ground proportionably besides thousands of Cottagers which have no right of commoning must go a begging which the Owners connive at because they cannot prevent it being so numerous So that Rape Cole-seed and Hemp is a Dutch Commodity and but trash and trumpery and pils Land in respect of the afore recited Commodities which are the Oare of the Common-wealth 8 Quaere Is it not pitty when Sir William Killagrew having done so much good by his drayning and hath spent 30000 l. but that the Countrey should re-imburse his moneys there is all the conscience and reason in the world for this Answ. First it hath been proved he hath done a great deale more hurt then good by his new Dreyners and when the Countrey shall make use of the Undertakers Dreynes we will give satisfaction for them but they are uselesse nay pernicious and broken Cisternes to the Commoners in Summer both by dreyning our dry grounds so we are constreyned to buy water and to drive our Cattell very far in Summer to water them whereas our old Dreynes have ever furnished us with water enough Then on the other extreame their new Works have so hurtfully surrounded us that our Upland and Corne-grounds have been spoyled by them this is fully proved by many uninteressed Witnesses the Countrey is daminified at the least 60000 l. by these Undertakers 9 Quaere Whether are the old Draynes or the new most usefull for dreyning Answ. The old Dreynes are as the naturall sinks or rather Vent of the Body of the Fens Suppose a mans fundament were stopped and that a hundred Issues were made in the body the whole masse of blood would quickly be corrupted and the body would breake out in botches and biles So stop the old Sewers you will quickly perceive the sores or Quagmires will increase and whereas there is but one Acre now hurtfully surrounded were the old Draines duly scowred if they be stopped there will be tenne This is proved by Master Thorpe Mathematician and he gives his reason which is Mathematicall and necessary Because the old Dreynes have farre greater descents then the new so that the old Dreynes were never without water in summer which now they want exceedingly by reason of these Undertakers Dreynes which was proved before Master Ellis when he had the Chaire by twenty Witnesses Likewise the new Dreynes wanting that descent the old had the least floods in Summer or Winter overflow those Lands sooner and longer which is the cause that these Fennes are ten times more hurtfully surrounded then before This is not my bare information but Mathematicall or necessary and proved by many Witnesses For I say what Master Walpoole hath alleadged is not Mathematicall at all but pragmaticall and fantasticall It is a strange Chymaera and Phrenzie in the Undertakers to expect satisfaction of the Parliament for the money they have expended It were just the same as though the old Ship-money Judges should be preferred to be Judges and that their Fines should be restored and they rewarded over and above and the present Reverend Judges who have adhered to the Parliament should be displaced and Fined O Monstrum horrendum in forme ingens Quodcunque ostendas mihi sie incredulus odi We hope the Parliament will either Fine them as they did the Ship-money Judges or the old Farmers of the Custom-house and that this Fine shall be imployed by Lawfull Commissioners of Sewers towards the doing of the Work or relieving the poor or that we shall be left to the Common-Law as the Parliament left Sir Robert Barkham Captain Hall and Master Waldrum If Sir William Killagrew finde himself agrieved he may then appeal to the Parliament The Rule in Divinity is Deus non vult contradictoria Sic Parliamentum non vult contradictoria In the first Grand Remonstrance this individuall business is declared to be an Injustice Oppression Violence Project and Grievance and they particularize it For this horrid Project furnished the Parliament with those choice Materials which builded their Grand Remonstrance These are their express words Large Quantities of Commons and severalls have been taken away by the colour of the Statute of Improvement that is by falsifying and adulterating it which is meant by the 43. of Eliz. and by abuse of the Commission of Sewers which dissolves that excellent Law of the 23. of H. the 8. without their consent and against it which is the destruction of the Great Charter Petition of Right the Act for abolishing the Star-Chamber and all the fundamentall Laws of the Land And against twenty of the Parliaments Declarations which are in Print to the view of all the world yet the Undertakers are so impudent that they are confident to pass a Law and to inslave us who have conquered them but we so Confide in our Trustees that we know it is impossible being contrary to the principles of a Republique who acknowledge the Supream Power resides in the People and the Supream Authority is derived from them and the Soul and heart of the Common-wealth is Liberty and Property These Undertakers were formidable Monsters to the Countrey and had they continued a little longer probably they would not only have torn in pieces but devoured and swallowed up the whole Nation For they were Legislators out of Parliament and Anti-Legislators Parliamentarians and Anti-Parliamentarians Bribers Judges Juries and Parties They were Legislators for they have made severall Laws and they bribed the King with 3000. Acres to purchase his Royall Assent though I believe they might have had it for nothing This was the Root of all our Miseries For could the Parliament by their humble Petitions have obtained the Kings Royall Assent as these Courtiers could do with ease by their importunity opportunity and flattery this War had probably been prevented Certainly the Undertakers were the onely Impeders and partition walls betwixt King and People and they had closed and been reconciled had it not been for such Imposters as they who cared not for God King nor Countrey but sought themselves and preferred their owne gaine before the Publique That Prince is unhappy that prefers Persons or Individuals before the Representative of so numerous a People and great Nation They were Anti-Legislators for all their Laws were point blank against the great Charter Petition of Right and all the Fundamentall Laws of the Land they were Parliamentarians to call a Parliament to sell Ship-money for twelve Subsidies and to raise money to make Wars against the Scots who wrestled for their Liberties and were not such tame slaves as they expected When the Parliament would give no Subsidies to inslave themselves then the Courtiers dissolved that Parliament That the Undertakers were Bribers is upon Record and likewise that they were Judges Juries and Parties Sir Edward Cook was wont to say that it never failed that those which brake Parliaments were alwayes broken by them yet these Undertakers hope to be repayred for their project which was onely to keep off Parliaments And this one Project had it succeeded would have commanded all the Land in England to have been at the Kings disposing Then all had been their own for the King was little the better by such Projects the Courtiers gained all FINIS